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Royal Infirmary Hospital


mickjj

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Guest broncolives

That waiting room looks like what was calle dthe round house. A small building at the rear of the main infirmaary where you went for eye treatment.

if you notice in the photo loads of people with one eye coevered,.

Seemed to be the remedy for all eye ailments in those days

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First time I ever spent in the Infirmary was around 1967.

I had a head injury playing rugby at school, got knocked out and awoke in a bed in the hospital, Mum and Dad by the bedside with Mum looking worried cus I kept passing out and coming to

I was eventually moved from the large ward to a room with about six beds which had a large bay window overlooking Martin Street flats. There was a TV in there and on the Saturday night someone put on 'Last Night of the Proms - I had never seen it before and thought it was brilliant - each time now I see it I am always taken straight back in my mind to that ward.

In the next bed to me was a guy who just continued to moan and groan all the time - wasnt so bad when we were all awake but come night time it was difficult to get some shut eye. I remember thinking to myself what a whimp this guy was - couldnt see owt wrong with him yet he was crying all the time and there's me, head in bandages, bleeding from my ears and being the brave soldier, until........I guess out of sheer frustration he threw his bedclothes to one side and where his legs should have been were two stumps in bandages.....obviously had some major surgery or amputation....I felt such a heel for thinking bad of him. The doctors came to examine him and he was taken away. Never saw him again so couldnt find out what had happened.

All told i think I spent about three weeks in there - the injury affected my inner ear for some time with the result that for a few weeks after I came out, if I turned round quickly I would lose my balance and collapse to the floor - that was ok until the kids at school found out... as cruel as kids can be at that age it was a great trick to walk past me and then shout out my name, of course I turned around and fell down to the accompniament of laughter from my 'mates'

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:o:o

I used to work there for Norwich Union some 14 years ago. Our main files were kept downstairs in what was the mortuary.

I remember it being very cold down there, and some of the other members of staff had reported strange things happening down there. Some even reported seeing strange figures walking down the corridor, doors would close by them self and there was an even stranger smell.

It is making me shiver just thinking about it.

My Mom trained as a Nurse here in the 50's, she was always up to mischief and told me that there used to be a "dumb waiter" type lift which lowered bodies to the mortuary, one evening she decided it would be funny to lay in the lift and deliver herself to the shocked mortuary attendents awaiting another "dead" body! Apparently the attendants were not amused and decided to lock her in a "chiller" for an hour or so to dwell on the error of her ways :blink:

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This is Asteeners wife replying. I was a nurse at Sheffield Royal Infirmary between 1973 until it closed and everyone transferred upto the Royal Hallamshire Hospital. There was a series of tunnels underneath the Infirmary. As a night sister when walking from the medical block to surgical block or to ENT we used the underground as all the main entrances at ground level were locked. It was very eerie. The underground was also the area near to the kitchens where all the meals were prepared.

As a student nusre I did one of my assessments (aseptic technique) in the A/E dept. This was where the new Tesco is now (wines and spirits dept!)

Does anyone remember the underground?

Hi My wife was a student nurse at the Infirmary from 1965 until about 1967 and lived in the Nurses home there called Centenary House (at the top right hand corner of the site looking from Infirmary Rd ; looking at a Google aeriel photo it appears Centenary House still stands). It was almost impossible for boy friends to get into the home ! After a night out all the nurses who lived there got into the hospital by going over a plank that was laid over the coal bunker on the road ( Albert Terrace Rd ?) at the side of the hospital that came up from Infirmary Rd. The coal bunker was not far away from the nurses home.

We well remember the underground tunnels which were a good idea and saved a lot of patients and staff from getting soaked when it rained. The tunnels were used during the war to allow patients to be moved safely.

We both remember Christmas Days at the Infirmary. All the staff worked 12 hours ( 8 am - 8 pm or nights ) and after she finished work we went to the show that was put on by doctors and nurses. - a real laugh it was ! After the show, everyone was invited back to the doctors residency for a party.

The best Christmas decorations were on Ward 23 which they decorated to be a Dickensian street complete with pub ( one of the staff rooms) etc. Christmas Day afternoon was a really good time for the staff and boy friends ( not so sure about the patients!). Great memories !!

I also had my tonsils out at the Royal Infirmary in 1949 - ops were pretty basic then !!

John

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Guest youle

Is this the building that still satnds today? At the side of Tescos? Or am I waaaaaaaaay off the mark?

Havent you had an answer yet ? You are correct . Its still there apart from A&E

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Guest tsavo

Thanks for that confirmation and welcome to the site. I wondered if it was still there as well, not having been down that way for a few years.

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Guest sheffbusman

I did some work in Centenery House a couple of weeks ago for the Sheffield Care Trust who have an office on the second floor. The building still has a very old feeling to it even though it has been modernised. :rolleyes:

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Over the door one one of the blocks, was the message - 'Abandon hope, all ye who enter here'.

I thought thar was at the start of the "Pirates of the Carribean" ride at Disneyland.

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I've been in Centenary House to and the building is great..on the outside but inside it is mostly all suspended ceilings and boring white walls.

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http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~sshm/swan.html

Extract :

Amassed and then catalogued all the worthwile artefacts from the former Sheffield Infirmary and Sheffield Royal Hospital before the move to the Royal Hallamshire Hospital in 1979.

Published an updating of the 1828 beginnings of the Sheffield Medical School and other works. Discovered and published two important Sheffield Royal Infirmary case-notes recording the successful clinical use of penicillin in 1930.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now that book and those artefacts would be interesting to see !

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http://www.shef.ac.uk/library/special/shefmedport.html

Sheffield Medical Portrait Collection

Sheffield General Infirmary, opened in 1797 - from its centenary accorded the title `Royal Infirmary´ - and the Sheffield Royal Hospital, growing out of a Dispensary opened circa 1829. Both institutions amalgamated in 1939, their separate sites closing in more recent times and their identity within 'United Sheffield Hospitals' being reborn as the modern Royal Hallamshire Hospital.

What was to become the University Medical School began life in the early 19th century as two rival institutions in the city centre, founded in 1828 and 1829, and coexisting for some years before eventually merging. In 1882 the School began an association with the recently founded Firth College, and in 1897 was incorporated into University College. It formed an integral part of the new University of Sheffield founded in 1905.

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http://www.shef.ac.uk/library/special/swan.html

Swan Papers

The collection consists of correspondence and other documents assembled by Harold Thomas Swan, MD, FRCP, FRCPath, Honorary Lecturer in Medical History, University of Sheffield, and formerly Consultant in Haematology, United Sheffield Hospitals, and relates principally to the history of two medical scientists:

Sir Alexander Fleming, who published his discovery of penicillin in 1929 but who has been subsequently criticised for an apparent failure to pursue its clinical potential, criticism repeated in a BBC Horizon programme in 1989; and

Dr Cecil George Paine, a junior Clinical Pathologist at the Royal Infirmary, Sheffield in 1929-30, for whose clinical work in the successful treatment of infections by penicillin there exists the earliest known documentation of such treatment.

The material is mainly in the form of correspondence between Dr Swan and individuals who worked with or knew Fleming and / or Paine. Many of the documents in the Fleming Material (Section 185/3 in the list) are copies, the originals of which are held in the British Library Department of Manuscripts.

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Guest billsaville

I lived on Upperthorpe Rd outside the gates of the Infirmary 'till 1947 and spent many "un"happy hours in there both as an in patient (I loved that, we lived in a cellar and were always cold and hungry) lovely and warm, good food and there were some men (wounded soldiers I think) in there who spoiled me rotten and as an out patient. My Grandmother was a cleaner there and she used to smuggle beer in for the men.

The laundry was underground and had little arched windows at ground level on Albert Terrace. I spent many a while there, it was incredibly hot and steamy with MASSIVE cloth covered rollers for pressing the sheets I thought it was terrifying.

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Sep 4th 1793.

Sheffield general infirmary; the first stone laid by

Mr. Swallow, deputed by Mrs. Fell, of New Hall,

(a donor of £1000 ) the ceremony attended by all

the public officers of the town, and upwards of

20,000 people.

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Oct. 4th 1797.

Sheffield General Infirmary, the institution first

opened for the reception of patients; first trustees

appointed, T.Walker, Esq., G. B. Greaves, Esq.,

Richard Swallow, Esq. Rev. J. Wilkinson, 0. H.

Rhodes, Esq., Samuel Shore, jun. Esq., Vincent

Eyre, Esq., Thomas Rawson, Esq., Thomas Holey,

Esq., Jno. Browne, M.D.

. Service in the parish church, with aselection of sacred

music.

. Procession from the church to the infirmary; the

magistrates, clergy, public officers, freemasons,

members of societies, &c.

. Public dinner at the Angel; Dr. Browne president.

. . Grand miscellaneous concert at the theatre.

5th. The sacred oratorio of the Messiah performed at the church.

. Second concert at the theatre.

6th. Grand selection of sacred music performed at the

church, principal singers; Madame Mara, Miss Leak,

Miss Neild, W. Neild and Meredith ; instrumental,

Messrs. Cramer, Flack, Holmes, Wilson,

Leanders, Linley, &c.; organ, Mr. J. Mather.

. Third concert at the theatre.

. Ball at the assembly rooms.

7th. First medical officers of the general infirmary; physicians,

Dr. Steuart, Dr. Wainwright, and Dr. Younffe; surgeons, Mr. Cheney. Mr. Stamforth,

and Mr. Webb.

Produce of the musical performances for the benefit

of the infirmary. £1055. 1s. 11d. Total expenses.

£748. 4s. 3d.

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That waiting room looks like what was calle dthe round house. A small building at the rear of the main infirmaary where you went for eye treatment.

if you notice in the photo loads of people with one eye coevered,.

Seemed to be the remedy for all eye ailments in those days

I was a patient on ward 21 in 1969 for 4 months, what memories ! I can remember walking down to the Roundhouse, I think it was for a blood test. Mark

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Does anyone have a photo of The Royal Infirmary before closure? I remember the large main entrance porch with cream coloured Bedford ambulances, the type with a bonnet rather than a flat front. The other thing I remember is the oxygen plant on the corner of Albert Terrace Rd / Infirmary Rd all the pipes and cylinders covered in ice.

What strange memories I have... can't tell you what I had for dinner yesterday :(

Mark, Scunthorpe

I was a patient there on ward 21 in 1969 for 4 months, I have both fond memories and weird memories and that was 40 years ago ...... no I can't remember what I had for lunch yesterday ?

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Guest carlie167

That waiting room looks like what was called the round house. A small building at the rear of the main infirmaary where you went for eye treatment.

if you notice in the photo loads of people with one eye coevered,.

Seemed to be the remedy for all eye ailments in those days

When I was a child, I attended the Infirmary, I had a "lazy eye" (still have for that matter) and I was months with one eye covered!

It didn't seem to improve things and you can imagine the tormenting I got at school.

My parents were then told there was nothing more to be done and I would have to put up with it.

Makes you wonder if it was necessary at all <_<

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Guest metalmickuk

my brother inlaw did some decorating there they told him " dont bother about doing a good job its coming down next month"some things never change

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Guest Elephant1972

This may seam a silly question but what was the reason for closure? wss it to build a more modern building. The Northern General is old but has never been closed.

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